A mother and father used their daughter in a cruel scam to claim extra benefits by pretending she was disabled.
Louise Law, 50, and her ex-husband Martin, 54 forced their daughter, seven, to fabricate an illness to game the benefits system.
Now, the pair have been sentenced after appealing at Hull Crown Court.
The court heard how the pair started their scam in 2012, when they instructed their daughter to start using the device in 2012 while they “fabricated illnesses and exaggerated symptoms” to teachers and NHS workers.
Hull Crown Court
PA
Prosecutor Louise Reevell told the court: “Her parents made her think that she could not walk properly. She would go to school in a wheelchair but she didn’t really need it.”
After being placed into foster care at the age of 12, their carer immediately made sure she stopped using the wheelchair and medication, all of which was not needed.
Reevell added: “‘She was able to run up and down stairs. She went on to join the Army cadets and did normal activities at school. At no point while in foster care did she suffer any pain or tiredness.
“The whole situation had a terrible effect on her mental health. Eventually, she stopped all contact with her parents and, as time went on, her mental health declined still further. She realised that they could do all the things that her parents had told her that she could not. She was discharged from an array of health care professionals that she had been referred to over the years.”
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Their daughter was forced into the wheelchair
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Louise Law, a mother-of-four, had no previous convictions – but Martin Law had convictions of spousal abuse.
Mitigating for Louise, Dale Brook said: “This was a toxic and wholly troubled marriage.”
Oliver Shipley, representing Martin Law, said that the defendant was currently in a care home. He had not been brought to court. It was proposed that a guardianship order be made on him, to be overseen by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
Judge Kate Rayfield stated that because the victim was now aged over 18 there was “no power” to impose a court order.
Louise Law admitted an offence of child cruelty. She changed her plea on the day of a scheduled trial and was jailed for six years and nine months.
Martin Law, now split from his wife, is now a long-term resident of a care home and was ruled unfit to enter a plea, although a jury convicted him of child cruelty. He was made subject of a guardianship order.
Passing sentence, Judge Kate Rayfield told Louise: “You repeatedly raised the issue of her being given a wheelchair. You were repeatedly advised against it. She missed out on so much of her childhood because of what you put her through.
“Despite all of her tests revealing nothing wrong, you continued to subject her to appointments and investigations. You did the talking yourselves, telling the doctors lies. This was a scam… You were telling her to report symptoms that she never said that she had.”
